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Bear, a five-year-old high-energy dog tasked with finding Koalas injured in Australia’s devastating bushfires, has rescued 100 such marsupials in the affected areas of New South Wales and Queensland.

The Australian Koolie is a part of Queensland’s University of Sunshine Coast’s (USC) ‘Detection Dogs for Conservation’ team which has been working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and local wildlife groups to rescue koalas living in the bushfire-ravaged areas.

Bear has been on the ground since November 2019 and has so far found 100 sick or injured Koalas in the affected areas of New South Wales and Queensland, Australia’s national news agency Australian Associated Press said in a report.

The USC with a help of drone mounted with a thermal camera locate the koalas in trees and then the dog is sent in to use his sense of smell to find them.

“We’ve worked in areas post-fire with other dogs, and they were able to smell their target odours, so it didn’t surprise me that Bear could do it,” said team member Romane Cristescu.

“The catastrophic landscape is really hard for us, but for Bear it’s an opportunity for him to be out and play and do what he likes doing,” she said.

Most of the koalas which suffered a blow during the severe bushfire conditions this summer were found near the Two Thumbs Wildlife Sanctuary in the NSW alpine region, Nerriga in the southern tablelands and Kandanga in Queensland’s Gympie region, the report said.

“We’re still finding animals that are struggling to find food. They’re on the edge of starvation. If we find them, wildlife carers can plump them up. Their goal is to release them when and where they have a better chance of having food available to them,” Cristescu said.

The bushfire emergency might be out of people’s minds, but for koalas, it is not over, she said, adding that many areas of land which were badly burnt have not recovered and vegetation has not grown back.

“Some places have burnt so much for such a wide area, some species may take decades to recover,” Cristescu said.

IFAW wildlife campaigner Josey Sharrad said Bear brought the team hope during the devastation due to the bushfires starting from September 2019 until March 2020.

“He found koalas despite all those harrowing conditions. That brought us hope,” she said.

Calls for koalas to be classified as endangered are growing following one of the worst bushfire seasons on record where thousands of koalas are believed to have perished.

“We don’t want people to move on so quickly from the bushfire emergency. Every koala we can track, rescue and rehab counts to the future survival of species,” Sharrad said.

Over one billion animals are estimated to have perished in the last bushfires season, prompting the Australian government to give wildlife and environmental groups an initial cash injection of USD 50 million.

The IFAW and the USC are also working on a research looking into how resilient the species are in the hope they can help more koalas survive in the next fire season.

ALSO READ: Australian bushfires have burned almost 5 million hectares of land. Watch heartbreaking videos

Singapore reported 573 new COVID-19 cases, mostly migrant workers, on Monday, taking the country’s total count to 18,778, as the government extended for another week the strict restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the deadly virus

According to the Health Ministry, only five were the citizens and permanent residents (foreigners) of Singapore while the migrant workers living in dormitories continue to make up the bulk of the remaining cases

Over the weekend, the government announced that some of the tighter restrictions put in place during Singapore’s circuit breaker will continue for another week. They were to be eased as of Monday

Some businesses, such as barbers, home-based businesses and laundry services, will be allowed to progressively open from May 12, although they still have to abide by precautions put in place earlier, The Straits Times reported

The Health Ministry said 15,833 of the 323,000 migrant workers living in dormitories, or 4.9 per cent, have tested positive for the virus

In contrast, 569 migrant workers not living in dorms, as well as 1,224 Singapore citizens and permanent residents (foreigners), have been diagnosed with the virus

The virus’ prevalence rates for migrant workers not living in dorms, and that for Singaporeans and permanent residents are 0.09 per cent and 0.03 per cent, respectively

The ministry said on Sunday that the new community cases among the Singaporeans and PRs, as well as long-term pass and work pass holders, fell from an average of 21 daily cases two weeks ago to 11 in the past week. This excludes work permit holders who are not living in dormitories

A total of 18 people have died due to the disease in the country.

Globally, 247,531 people have died and over 3.5 million have been infected due to the novel coronavirus that first originated in December last year in Wuhan, China.

ALSO READ: Tough old moment: UK PM Boris Johnson says doctors had plan in case he died of coronavirus

ALSO WATCH: Is China hiding crucial corona facts?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened a virtual global conference on COVID-19 on Monday by calling on all countries to step up their efforts and work together on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the “most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes”.

The Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference was co-hosted by the UK and eight other countries and organisations including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the European Commission.

At the conference, Johnson confirmed the UK’s pledge of 388 million pounds aid funding for research into vaccines, tests and treatments part of a larger 744 million pounds existing UK aid commitment to help end the pandemic and support the global economy. This includes 250 million pounds for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to develop vaccines against coronavirus the biggest such donation to the fund by any country.

“To win this battle, we must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people, and that can only be achieved by developing and mass producing a vaccine,” said Johnson.

“The more we pull together and share our expertise, the faster our scientists will succeed. The race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries, but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes. It’s humanity against the virus we are in this together, and together we will prevail,” he said.

The conference was updated on the progress at pace on vaccine development, with the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca announcing a partnership to support large-scale manufacture and potential distribution of a vaccine currently being trialled by the university.

The UK highlighted that tackling coronavirus globally is crucial to preventing a second wave of the virus re-emerging in Britain, which would put even further pressure on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS). It will also ensure that life-saving vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests are available as soon as possible.

UK International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said: “It is only by working together that we will prevent future waves of infection and end this pandemic as quickly as possible.

“By strengthening developing countries’ health systems and working to find a vaccine, the UK is playing its part in stopping the global spread of coronavirus to save lives everywhere and protect our NHS.”

The conference this week will be followed up by the UK hosting the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4, bringing together countries and organisations to follow the UK’s lead in investing in the work of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Last week Trevelyan announced a funding pledge equivalent to 330 million pounds a year over the next five years to Gavi. This will help immunise 75 million children in the world’s poorest countries.

ALSO READ: Tough old moment: UK PM Boris Johnson says doctors had plan in case he died of coronavirus

ALSO WATCH: Is China hiding crucial corona facts?

Global novel coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million on Monday and deaths neared a quarter of a million, according to a Reuters tally, concerning experts who fear substantial underreporting even as the rate of fatalities and new cases slows.

North America and European countries, where growth rates are easing, still accounted for most of the new infections reported in recent days.

But case numbers were rising from smaller bases in Latin America, Africa and Russia, and experts expressed concern that the overall data falls well short of the true impact of the pandemic.

Globally, there were 74,779 new cases over the past 24 hours, according to the Reuters tally that is based on official government data, taking total cases to around 3.52 million.

That compares with around 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness caused annually by seasonal influenza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but falls far short of the Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and infected an estimated 500 million people.

“We still have to be skeptical about the numbers we get,” Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at Canberra Hospital, told Reuters. “That’s a huge problem.”

“The mortality rate is also 10 times higher than for influenza in all age groups.”

Cases may cause only mild symptoms and not everyone with symptoms is tested, while most countries only record hospital deaths, meaning many deaths in private homes and nursing homes have not yet been included.

Deaths related to Covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus, stood at 246,920. The first death was reported on Jan. 10 in Wuhan, China, after the virus emerged there in December.

LIFTING LOCKDOWNS?

The daily rate of new cases worldwide has been sitting in a 2 per cent-3 per cent range over the past week, versus a peak of around 13 per cent in mid-March, prompting many countries to begin easing lockdown measures that have upended businesses and crippled the global economy.

The loosening of restrictions has proved controversial, however, as experts debate the best strategy to ensure there is no large “second wave” outbreak.

“We could easily have a second or a third wave because a lot of places aren’t immune,” Collignon said, noting the world was well short of herd immunity, which requires around 60 per cent of the population to have recovered from the disease.

Health officials have also expressed concern about the rising case numbers in countries where there is a shortage of testing and a lack of medical facilities.

While the number of new cases has come off a peak of 104,495 reported in a single day last week, it is still at around 75,000 to 90,000 cases per day globally.

In the United States, around half the country’s state governors partially reopened their economies over the weekend, while others, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, declared the move was premature.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who battled Covid-19 last month, said on Sunday the country was over the peak but it was still too early to relax lockdown measures.

Even in countries where the suppression of the disease has been considered successful, such as Australia and New Zealand which have recorded daily rates of new infections in the low single digits for weeks, officials have been cautious.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has predicated a full lifting of curbs on widespread public adoption of a mobile phone tracing app and increased testing levels.

IndiaToday.in has plenty of useful resources that can help you better understand the coronavirus pandemic and protect yourself. Read our comprehensive guide (with information on how the virus spreads, precautions and symptoms), watch an expert debunk myths, check out our data analysis of cases in India, and access our dedicated coronavirus page. Get the latest updates on our live blog.

Hundreds of people are rolling up their sleeves in countries across the world to be injected with experimental vaccines that might stop Covid-19, spurring hope — maybe unrealistic — that an end to the pandemic may arrive sooner than anticipated.

About 100 research groups are pursuing vaccines with nearly a dozen in early stages of human trials or poised to start. It’s a crowded field, but researchers say that only increases the odds that a few might overcome the many obstacles that remain.

“We’re not really in a competition against each other. We’re in a race against a pandemic virus, and we really need as many players in that race as possible,” Dr. Andrew Pollard, who is leading the University of Oxford’s vaccine study, told The Associated Press.

The hard truth: There’s no way to predict which — if any — vaccine will work safely, or even to name a front-runner.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top expert, put it: “You need more shots on goal for a chance at getting a safe and effective vaccine.”

The first cautious tests of March, when small numbers of volunteers got injections to check for side effects, have turned into larger studies in China, the U.S. and Europe to look for hints that different vaccine candidates really protect.

Next: Finding out for sure if any of the vaccines work in the real world by testing large groups of people in areas where the virus is circulating — a tricky prospect when study participants may be in places where the virus is fading or they are told to stay home — and finding a way to quickly distribute lots of doses of any successful candidates.

Policymakers are devising plans to try to overcome both obstacles in an attempt to compress the years it usually takes to develop a vaccine. Asked if a vaccine by January was possible, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told Fox News Sunday “on paper, it’s possible. It’s whether we can execute,” she said.

Fauci has cautioned that even if everything goes perfectly, 12 to 18 months to develop a vaccine would set a speed record — and January will mark a year since the National Institutes of Health began creating its own COVID-19 vaccine, now in trials with Moderna Inc.

MULTIPLE SHOTS WORK IN MULTIPLE WAYS

Depending how you count, there are between eight and 11 vaccine candidates in early stages of testing in China, the U.S., Britain and Germany — a collaboration between Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech last week began a study in Germany that’s simultaneously testing four somewhat different shots. More study sites are about to open in still other countries — and between May and July another handful of different vaccines is set to begin first-in-human testing.

There’s no shortage of volunteers.

“This allows me to play a small role in fighting this thing,” said Anthony Campisi, 33, of Philadelphia, who received his first test dose of Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ DNA-based vaccine at the University of Pennsylvania last month. “I can be a guinea pig.”

The initial vaccine candidates work in a variety of ways. That’s important because if one type fails, maybe another won’t.

Different types of vaccines work better in some virus families than others. But for coronaviruses, there’s no blueprint. Back in 2003 when scientists attempted vaccines against SARS, a cousin of the new virus, animal studies hinted at safety problems but then SARS disappeared and vaccine funding dried up. Vaccines against another COVID-19 cousin named MERS have only reached first-step safety testing.

“In 20/20 hindsight, we should have worked harder on coronavirus vaccines back then,” said Dr. Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health. Now, “we’re obligated to try a variety of strategies if we want fast results.”

PROS AND CONS

China’s Sinovac and SinoPharm are testing “inactivated” vaccines, made by growing the new coronavirus and killing it. The companies have revealed little information about how the shots differ. But the technology is tried-and-true — polio shots and some types of flu vaccine are inactivated virus — although it’s hard to scale up to rapidly produce millions of doses.

Most other vaccines in the pipeline aim to train the immune system to recognize a piece of the new coronavirus — mostly, the spiky protein that studs its outer surface.

One way: Use a harmless virus to carry the spike protein into the body. It’s easier to produce but determining which virus is the best “carrier” is a key question. China’s CanSino Biologics brewed its vaccine using a common cold-causing adenovirus, engineered so it won’t spread in the body. And in case people’s immune systems fight off the cold virus before the vaccine can do its job, Pollard’s Oxford team instead chose an adenovirus that normally infects chimpanzees.

Another way: Inject a piece of the coronavirus genetic code that instructs the body itself to produce spike protein that in turn primes the immune system to attack. It’s a new and unproven technology but one that promises even faster production. Vaccines made by NIH and Moderna, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and that Pfizer-BioNtech collaboration use genetic code approaches.

Still more methods are next in line: Vaccine made of spike protein nanoparticles, and even a nasal spray alternative to shots.

PROVING THEY WORK

Most vaccine studies so far are tracking safety and whether volunteers’ blood shows any immune reactions. Some have jumped to larger numbers quickly, but there’s still concern about being able to prove real-world protection.

If study participants are holed up at home or live in areas where the virus has quit spreading rapidly, then too few may get sick for scientists to tell if the vaccine or social distancing was what protected them. The Oxford study, for example, will track about 1,000 people, half given the real vaccine. But the team plans a later-stage study with another 5,000 volunteers for a final answer and knows it might have to move to other countries.

“When you’re chasing a pandemic, the place that looks like the right one to go to today will be the wrong place two weeks from now. And that makes it really difficult,” Pollard said.

In the U.S., some lawmakers have urged a different and controversial experiment: Recruit young, healthy volunteers who agree to be deliberately infected with the new coronavirus to prove if a vaccine protects them. But some healthy adults do die from COVID-19 — and until doctors better understand why, that so-called “challenge study” makes for a risky proposition with serious ethical questions, Yale’s Vermund noted.

The World Health Organization last week called for countries to offer to be test sites for an international project that will speed the timeline by admitting on a rolling basis promising vaccine candidates for further study in locations where COVID-19 remains widespread at the time.

In the U.S., the Trump administration is planning its own project dubbed Operation Warp Speed that will overlap studies of “different candidates that are made differently and act differently,” Birx said.

If early evidence was strong enough and the virus is still widespread, the Food and Drug Administration might even consider emergency use of a vaccine before final test results were in, Dr. Peter Marks, who directs the FDA office that oversees vaccines, recently told reporters.

SUPPLYING THE WORLD

Whenever the first useful vaccine is identified, there won’t be enough for everyone. So a growing number of vaccine makers say they’re already starting to brew tons of doses — wasting millions of dollars if they bet on the wrong candidate but shaving a few months off mass vaccinations if their choice pans out.

“We need to start building new manufacturing sites now,” said Wellcome Trust vaccine chief Charlie Weller. “And we need to accept that some of these sites will be created for vaccines that will ultimately fail.”

It’s not just a gamble for shareholders. The U.S. government already has deals with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson that together total nearly $1 billion and include scaling up production.

“The critical thing at the beginning is just to make as much stuff as we can,” said Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which is funding several COVID-19 vaccine attempts around the world.

Even if one works, expect rationing early on as policymakers determine who most needs the first doses — possibly health workers or the elderly — until there’s enough for the world, rich and poor countries alike.

“I am concerned about what I call vaccine nationalism. That’s the tension between obligations elected leaders will feel to protect the lives of their citizens” versus the imperative for equitable global sharing, Hatchett said.

And with billions who’ll need a dose or maybe several, just one winner in this race won’t cut it.

“It’s not likely that one manufacturer or one candidate vaccine is going to be able to deal with the global need and supply that need,” Pollard said.

IndiaToday.in has plenty of useful resources that can help you better understand the coronavirus pandemic and protect yourself. Read our comprehensive guide (with information on how the virus spreads, precautions and symptoms), watch an expert debunk myths, check out our data analysis of cases in India, and access our dedicated coronavirus page. Get the latest updates on our live blog.

As the world prepares for a new order post Covid-19, Pakistan — China’s all-weather ally — has roped in a controversial political lobbyist to improve its ties with the United States, documents reviewed by India Today show.

The Imran Khan government, papers reveal, has entered into an agreement with a Republican lobbyist, Stephen Payne, to provide “strategic consulting services in support of Pakistan’s diplomatic goals” in the US.

The move is seen in the context of a possible weakening of China’s influence in the post-pandemic world.

The agreement was signed by the Houston-based lobbyist, Payne, and Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan, on April 15.

Activities like “planning and meeting with government and non-government representatives and public relations services” are listed as part of the contract, the document accessed by India Today show.

The lobby group’s activities on the US soil have been identified as “political” in nature.

The term of the signed contract lasts six months, from April 16 to October 16 this year.

According to diplomatic sources, Pakistan’s hurried tie-up with a Republican lobbyist amidst the Covid-19 pandemic signals Islamabad’s desperate attempt to save itself from possible global alienation because of its over-dependence on China.

Agreement shows Pakistan as a Client State

Nature of work covered under the contract

Covert Funding

Even though the agreement is signed by Pakistan’s ambassador, it explicitly mentions that no money will be directly paid by the government of Pakistan to the US consultant.

In fact, the contract details covert ways of payment on behalf of the Pakistan government to the lobbyist in the US – through nonprofit groups.

According to the papers, an undisclosed amount of money is to be paid by “US-based Pakistani-American diaspora organisations” for the services offered by the lobbyist group, which involve “specifically improving relationship between the United States and Pakistan”.

India Today earlier investigated the role of the Houston-based Pakistani-American diaspora organisations’ covert anti-India campaigns.

Diplomatic sources have told India Today that they expect such “anti-India campaigns to increase on the US soil with the latest developments”.

Also, Pakistan is among the poor countries eligible to receive debt repayment relief announced by G-20 countries following the global outbreak of coronavirus. Its prime minister, Imran Khan, has been requesting the developed world to “do more” in order to help nations like his hit by the pandemic.

Agreement describes covert compensation process

Signatures of Pakistan Ambassador to US Asad Majeed Khan on Agreement

The Lobbyist’s Chequered Past

Payne is no stranger to controversy as he had to resign from his position in the Advisory Council of the US Department of Homeland Security after he was caught in a “cash-for-access” sting by a UK newspaper.

In 2008, he was accused of offering access to top White House figures in exchange for donations towards then President George W Bush’s private library.

Payne used to accompany Bush and then Vice-President Dick Cheney on their foreign visits.

As the US moves towards presidential elections due later this year, the involvement of a Pakistan-hired Republican lobbyists could be a matter of concern for India, diplomatic sources say, citing Payne’s past record.

The lobbyist worked for Pakistan during the Musharraf regime after the 9/11 terror attacks, a period during which Islamabad earned a major non-NATO-ally status and received multi-billion dollars in aid from the US government.

Last year, Payne signed a deal with the Libyan National Army, resulting in a surprise phone call between President Donald Trump and Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan army.

China still faces the risk of Covid-19 rebound as 10 provincial-level regions have reported new locally-transmitted novel coronavirus cases over the last two weeks, a top health official warned on Monday.

The National Health Commission (NHC) said that three new confirmed Covid-19 cases were reported on Sunday. All three were Chinese arriving from abroad.

Also, 13 new asymptomatic cases, including two imported ones, were reported.

As of Sunday, 962 asymptomatic cases, including 98 from abroad, were still under medical observation, the NHC said.

Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested Covid-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others.

NHC spokesperson Mi Feng said that 10 provincial-level regions have reported new locally-transmitted cases or asymptomatic cases over the last 14 days, which highlighted that risks of a resurgence and even spread of the epidemic still exist, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Though many offices, businesses and tourist sites were re-opened in Beijing, some public venues such as cinemas, theatres and arcades remained closed for epidemic prevention and control, the report added.

The death toll in the country stands at 4,633 as no new fatalities were reported on Sunday.

As of Sunday, the overall confirmed cases in the Chinese mainland reached 82,880 with 481 still undergoing treatment.

The novel coronavirus, which originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year, has claimed nearly 250,000 lives and infected over 3.5 million people globally, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

IndiaToday.in has plenty of useful resources that can help you better understand the coronavirus pandemic and protect yourself. Read our comprehensive guide (with information on how the virus spreads, precautions and symptoms), watch an expert debunk myths, check out our data analysis of cases in India, and access our dedicated coronavirus page. Get the latest updates on our live blog.

New Zealand on Monday recorded no new cases of the novel coronavirus for the first time since March 16 and less than a week after the Pacific nation ended a strict lockdown that appears to have contained the outbreak.

Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a news conference the result was cause for celebration, noting the death toll remained at 20 with no additional virus-related fatalities.

“It is symbolic of the effort everyone has put in,” Bloomfield told reporters.

“This is the first day that we had no new cases and we want to keep it that way.”

Last Tuesday, New Zealand ended a strict lockdown which shut offices, schools, malls, restaurants, playgrounds and all other public areas for over a month.

However, several social restrictions remain in place with millions of New Zealanders still working and studying from home, although some economic activity was allowed to resume.

Bloomfield cautioned that people must continue social distancing measures to ensure COVID-19 does not return.

“Clearly these are encouraging figures today, but it is just one moment in time,” Bloomfield said.

“The real test is later this week when we factor in the incubation period for the virus and the time it takes for people to display symptoms which is generally five to six days after exposure.”

The total number of confirmed cases in the country is 1,137, he said.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters on Monday backed calls for a so called trans-Tasman bubble that would allow movement of people between New Zealand and Australia, saying such an arrangement could work “seriously well”.

Australia has so far escaped the high numbers of casualties seen in other countries, with about 6,800 infections and 95 deaths.

The country had 26 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, including a seven-year-old boy, across three states in the biggest daily jump in two weeks.

A New Zealand rugby team was given the green light to fly to Australia and start training for a tournament while undergoing 14 days of quarantine.

“Officials in both countries are considering all aspects of the trans-Tasman concept, and planning how this could happen more broadly,” Peters said.

IndiaToday.in has plenty of useful resources that can help you better understand the coronavirus pandemic and protect yourself. Read our comprehensive guide (with information on how the virus spreads, precautions and symptoms), watch an expert debunk myths, check out our data analysis of cases in India, and access our dedicated coronavirus page. Get the latest updates on our live blog.

While millions of people took advantage of easing coronavirus lockdowns to enjoy the outdoors, some of the world’s most populous countries reported worrisome new peaks in infections Sunday, including India, which saw its biggest single-day jump yet.

Second in population only to China, India reported more than 2,600 new infections. In Russia, new cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time. The confirmed total death toll in Britain climbed near that of Italy, the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak, even though the U.K. population is younger than Italy’s and Britain had more time to prepare.

The United States continues to see tens of thousands of new infections each day, with more than 1,400 additional deaths reported Saturday.

Health experts have warned of a potential second wave of infections unless testing is expanded dramatically once the lockdown are relaxed. But pressure to reopen keeps building after the weeks-long shutdown of businesses plunged the global economy into its deepest slump since the 1930s and wiped out millions of jobs.

At a virtual town hall Sunday night, President Donald Trump acknowledged some Americans are worried about getting sick while others are concerned about losing jobs.

Though the administration’s handling of the pandemic, particularly the ability to conduct widespread testing, has come under criticism, the president defended the response and said the nation was ready to begin reopening.

“We have to get it back open safely but as quickly as possible,” Donald Trump said.

China, which reported only two new cases, saw a surge in visitors to tourist spots newly reopened ahead of a five-day holiday that runs through Tuesday. Nearly 1.7 million people visited Beijing parks on the first two days of the holiday, and Shanghai’s main tourist spots welcomed more than 1 million visitors, according to Chinese media. Many spots limited daily visitors to 30 per cent of capacity.

On the eve of Italy’s first steps toward easing restrictions, the Health Ministry reported 174 deaths in the 24-hour period ending Sunday evening – the lowest day-to-day number since the national lockdown began on March 10. Parks and public gardens were set to reopen on Monday.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to reveal how the country will lift its lockdown. The restrictions are due to last through Thursday, but with hundreds of deaths still being reported daily, it’s unclear how the country can safely loosen the restrictions.

The 55-year-old Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care while being treated for COVID-19, told The Sun newspaper that he knew his doctors were preparing for the worst.

“It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it,” he said. “They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario” if he succumbed to the virus.

Another potentially troubling sign emerged in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, where a third of 500 people tested randomly were positive.

In the U.S., New Jersey reopened state parks, though several had to turn people away after reaching a 50% limit in their parking lots. Margie Roebuck and her husband were among the first on the sand at Island Beach State Park.

“Forty-six days in the house was enough,” she said.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx expressed concern about protests by armed and mostly maskless crowds demanding an end to stay-at-home orders and a full reboot of the economy. Trump has encouraged people to “liberate” their states.

“It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather … they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives,” she said. “So we need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.”

If restrictions are lifted too soon, the virus could come back in “small waves in various places around the country,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Nothing has changed in the underlying dynamics of this virus,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Meanwhile, the divide in the United States between those who want lockdown to end and those who want to move more cautiously extended to Congress.

The Republican-majority Senate will reopen Monday in Washington. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is staying shuttered. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to convene 100 senators gives Trump, a Republican, the imagery he wants of America getting back to work, despite the risks.

Elsewhere, Russia’s latest tally of infections was nearly double the new cases reported a week ago. More than half of Russia’s new cases were in Moscow, where concern is rising about whether the capital’s medical facilities will be overwhelmed.

Indian air force helicopters showered flower petals on hospitals in several cities to thank doctors, nurses and police at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic.

The country’s confirmed cases neared 40,000 as the lockdown of its 1.3 billion people was extended two more weeks, but with some measures relaxed. The official death toll reached 1,323.

And in Mexico City, where authorities expect infections to peak next week, workers will turn the Hernandez Rodriguez Formula 1 racecourse into a temporary hospital for Covid-19 patients. The paddocks and suites along the front straightaway will have eight-hospital modules with 24 beds each. The pits will be used as offices for consultations.

Governments have reported 3.5 million infections and more than 247,000 deaths, including more than 67,000 dead in the United States, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. Deliberately concealed outbreaks, low testing rates and the severe strain the disease has placed on health care systems mean the true scale of the pandemic is undoubtedly much greater.

IndiaToday.in has plenty of useful resources that can help you better understand the coronavirus pandemic and protect yourself. Read our comprehensive guide (with information on how the virus spreads, precautions and symptoms), watch an expert debunk myths, check out our data analysis of cases in India, and access our dedicated coronavirus page. Get the latest updates on our live blog.

France said Sunday that it would not quarantine anyone arriving from the EU, the Schengen area or Britain due to the coronavirus, as it prepares to start easing confinement measures after two months of lockdown.

On Saturday, the government had said it would extend the state of emergency to contain the crisis until at least July 24, and anyone entering France would have to remain in isolation for two weeks.

But the quarantine rules would not apply to “anyone arriving from the European Union, the Schengen zone or Britain, regardless of their nationality”, the presidency said on Sunday.

And for French and EU citizens arriving in France from other regions outside the EU, the Schengen area and Britain, “the rules will be announced in the coming days”, the presidency said.

Nevertheless, the tougher border controls introduced by France in mid-March to limit coronavirus contagion, particularly at the border with Germany, will continue, the interior ministry told AFP.

“The travel restrictions currently in place at our borders will continue to apply,” the ministry said. “Nothing has changed.”

The number of new deaths from COVID-19 in France has been declining in recent days, with 135 fatalities reported over the past 24 hours on Sunday.

The national health service said the increase brought France’s total death toll to 24,895, the world’s fifth highest figure after the United States, Italy, Britain and Spain.

The last time the number of daily reported deaths was below 135 was on March 22, when it represented only those reported by hospitals.

The current figure also includes deaths reported by elderly care homes and other medicalised care facilities.

France plans to start lifting the coronavirus lockdown from May 11, when children are to return to school in stages, some businesses will reopen and people will be able to travel within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of their homes without a signed justification for their movement.

But Health Minister Olivier Veran warned Sunday that this would depend on further declines in COVID-19 infections, especially in hard-hit areas like the Paris region and northeast France.

The government has said the number of new coronavirus cases must stabilise at fewer than 3,000 per day as it expands testing, otherwise doctors and nurses could face another wave of patients that have tested hospitals since March.

“If the number of new cases proves too high, we’ll have to reconsider the date for lifting the lockdown, and decide according to the situation in each department,” Veran told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

He also cautioned against planning summer holidays for now, saying “it’s unlikely that this virus is going to go on vacation”.

Officials are scrambling to ramp up testing capacities to 700,000 people each week by May 11, which health experts say is essential for containing the outbreak.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was “a significant amount of evidence” that the new coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory, but did not dispute US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that it was not man-made.

“There is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,” Pompeo told ABC’s “This Week,” referring to the virus that emerged late last year in China and has killed about 240,000 people around the world, including more than 67,000 in the United States.

Pompeo then briefly contradicted a statement issued last Thursday by the top U.S. spy agency that said the virus did not appear to be man-made or genetically modified. That statement undercut conspiracy theories promoted by anti-China activists and some supporters of President Donald Trump who suggest it was developed in a Chinese government biological weapons laboratory.

“The best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point,” Pompeo said. When the interviewer pointed out that was not the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, Pompeo backtracked, saying: “I’ve seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on Pompeo’s comments.

China’s Global Times, run by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said in an editorial responding to Pompeo’s Sunday interview that he did not have any evidence the virus came from the lab in Wuhan and that he was “bluffing,” calling on the United States to present the evidence.

“The Trump administration continues to engage in unprecedented propaganda warfare while trying to impede global efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic,” the editorial said.

Thursday’s report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it concurred with “the wide scientific consensus” that the disease was not man-made.

U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reporting and analysis have said for weeks that they do not believe Chinese scientists developed the coronavirus in a government biological weapons lab from which it then escaped.

Rather, they have said they believe it was either introduced through human contact with wildlife at a meat market in the central city of Wuhan, or could have escaped from one of two Wuhan government laboratories believed to be conducting civilian research into possible biological hazards.

Pompeo said on Thursday it was not known whether the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a meat market, or somewhere else. Trump said the same day that he was confident it may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but he declined to describe the evidence.

Venezuelan officials said they foiled an early morning attempt by a group of armed “mercenaries” to invade the country in a beach landing using speedboats Sunday, killing eight attackers and arresting two more.

Socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello said that two of the attackers were interrogated by authorities. Cabello said it was carried out by neighboring Colombia with the United States backing the plot to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro – a claim dismissed by U.S. and Colombian officials.

“Those who assume they can attack the institutional framework in Venezuela will have to assume the consequences of their action,” said Cabello, adding that one of the detained claimed to be an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Authorities said they found Peruvian documents, high-caliber weapons, satellite phones, uniforms and helmets adorned with the US flag.

Both Colombia and the United States have repeatedly denied previous Venezuelan allegations of backing military plots against the socialist government.

“We have little reason to believe anything that comes out of the former regime,” said a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, referring to Maduro’s government. “The Maduro regime has been consistent in its use of misinformation in order to shift focus from its mismanagement of Venezuela.”

Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry also rejected the claims made by what it called “Maduro’s dictatorial regime.”

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol described the attackers as “mercenary terrorists” bent on destabilizing Venezuela’s institutions and creating “chaos.” Officials said the attack took place on a beach in La Guaira, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Caracas and home to the nation’s largest airport.

Authorities say the attackers had vehicles and heavy arms waiting for them in the port city.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis in recent years under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care has driven nearly 5 million to migrate.

A coalition of nearly 60 nations backs opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, saying Maduro’s 2018 election was a sham because the most popular opposition candidates were banned from running.

The United States has led a campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest. The U.S. also has increased stiff sanctions, cutting off Venezuela’s oil sector to choke Maduro from a key source of hard cash.

Iván Simonovis, a former high-ranking Venezuelan police official who now advises opposition leaders on intelligence strategy from Washington, speculated on Twitter that there might have been a clash between security forces on Sunday and suggested Maduro’s government created the story of a plot to justify “repression against the interim government and any Venezuelan who opposes the dictatorship.”

But in addition to U.S. economic and diplomatic pressure, Maduro’s government has faced several small-scale military threats, including an attempt to assassinate Maduro with a drone and Guaidó’s call for a military uprising, which was joined by few soldiers.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that an apparently ill-funded attempt to amass an invasion force of 300 men in Colombia involving a former Venezuelan military officer and an ex-Green Beret, suffered setbacks in March when a main organizer was arrested, an arms cache was seized and some participants abandoned its camps.

Jordan Goudreau, the ex-Green Beret, said in a video posted Sunday on Twitter from undisclosed location that forces had entered Venezuela from other points and were “deep inside Caracas.” He didn’t take credit for the alleged pre-dawn beach invasion, but said “our units have been activated,” although no other signs of unrest surfaced throughout the day.

Retired Venezuelan National Guard Capt. Javier Nieto Quintero appeared in the video with Goudreau, urging members of the armed forces to help liberate the nation in an action he called “Operation Gideon.”

Nieto, when contacted by AP on a Miami telephone, declined to comment and hung up. Goudreau also declined to comment in a call from Caracas.

Cabello linked Sunday’s attack to key players in that alleged plot. One of the men he said was killed, a man nicknamed “the Panther,” had been identified as involved in obtaining weapons for the force in Colombia.

Maduro and his allies say the Trump administration is determined to end Venezuela’s socialist government to exploit the South American nation’s vast underground oil reserves. Maduro remains in power, backed by the military and with international support from Cuba, Russia, China and Iran.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, speaking on state TV Sunday backed by armed soldiers and tanks units, called the attackers mercenaries who “don’t have souls. They’re cowards.”

Guaidó accused Maduro’s government of seizing on this example of unrest to draw the world’s attention away from embarrassing bloodshed in other parts of the country, including a prison riot days earlier that left at least 40 dead.

“Of course, there are patriotic members of the military willing to fight for Venezuela,” Guaidó said. “But it’s clear that what happened in Vargas is another distraction ploy.”